Fall in sales leaves Majestic Wine with half-year hangover

A fall in underlying sales has left Majestic Wine with a half-year hangover after they dropped 0.4 per cent compared with booming trading on the back of the Queen’s jubilee celebrations last year.

But the timing of Easter helped the figures over the last 17 weeks of the half, with sales rebounding 3 per cent.

The firm, which operates 198 wine warehouses with car parking and a minimum order of six bottles per customer, saw pre-tax profit rise from £9.1million to £9.5million for the 26 weeks to September 30, on sales of £130million.